What animal do you think is the deadliest animal in the world? 

Lions? Snakes? Sharks?

Nope.

Which animal has about 3500 species, about 40 of which can potentially kill a human?
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We’ve all seen hundreds of them (more likely, thousands). We’ve all been driven crazy by their high-pitched buzzing. And when we’re attacked, we’ve all slapped ourselves trying to smush them (either fearfully, BEFORE they strike; or angrily, AFTER they’ve skewered our skin.)

(If you thought of the mosquito, you are correct!)

Most of us have asked this question about them: “WHY??? Why did God make them?”

•   Maybe mosquitos, because they are blood suckers, provide iron for the birds and bats that eat them?
•   Maybe mosquitos were Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ to keep him, and us, dependent on God?
•   Maybe the plague of gnats in Exodus 8 was really a plague of mosquitoes.
•   I know this one for sure: Mosquito larvae provide food for tadpoles in my pond!

​Whether they do anything beneficial or not, mosquitos are, overall, a curse, and I’m sure it happened after the fall.

​Every morning my husband and I walk several laps around a pond on our property.  We dug the pond last fall, so this spring and summer are the first seasons we’ve had a full pond.

We’ve loved watching the bullfrogs camp out on the embankment, and leap into the water as we pass by.  We have even named some of them—Mr. Big (because even though he’s not that big, he’s the biggest at our pond), and Sharapova (because, like the tennis player, the frog grunts every time she hops).

We stocked the pond with some perch and minnows in early spring, and we love throwing them fish food from time to time, and watching them hit the top of the water to eat.

One afternoon we even loved watching a little water snake (non-poisonous!)  playfully writhe on the top of the water in the middle of the pond.  I would never have imagined thinking of a snake as ‘frolicking’—but I did, and it made me happy.

Today, a particularly sultry morning, we loved watching our 15-year-old dog, Stiver, wade out into the water to take a refreshing swim.

How much of our joy and pleasure is dependent on water?  We ENJOY being around water—it’s beauty, the way it feels running over our skin, the sounds it can make during gentle rains.

HOWEVER. . .Early this spring, I have to confess, I complained: “When is it going to stop raining?  The pond is full already!  Our horse-barn is a mud pit!”

I thought our quick-sand would NEVER dry out.

Then we experienced many weeks without any rain at all. 

I began to complain . . . AGAIN. 

“Our grass is turning brown.”

“Our horses won’t have any pasture to get them through summer.”

“I’ll have to actually water our tomatoes by hand.”

“Everything will get so dusty if we don’t get some rain!”

Easter Letter to Our Compassion Daughter
​Kay Adkins, Write the Vision, kayscopy.com

Finally.  It’s been too long since my child received one of me.  I know she wonders about her Compassion Sponsor.  I know that she wonders why other Compassion children have heard from their sponsors, but she hasn’t heard from hers in a long time. 

So I’m really excited for today, because today her sponsor and I will bring her Good News. Her sponsor has been thinking about this letter for a while—she always seems to write the same things.  Maybe she’ll share a different verse, or talk about the weather or her pets, or her grandchildren. But usually she feels like what she writes is the same every time.  Not this time!

Today, even though our Compassion daughter won’t get the letter for a while, we’re going to tell her what Easter means to us. 

We’re going to tell her about how her sponsor was before Jesus came into her life.

She is writing on me now about how she was only eight-years-old when her own big sister shared the good news about how we can become a part of God’s forever family.  She says she was about the age of her Compassion child when she invited Jesus to be her Lord and Savior.  She hadn’t done any “really BAD things,”  but she was still a sinner like everyone is (because everyone has done things that God has told us not to do---like telling a lie, or disobeying a parent).

When she understood that she had not always pleased God, and that Jesus had taken her punishment for her by dying on the cross, she decided to ask Him to forgive her, and be the boss of her life.  And He did, he gave her a new life and a promise that nothing will ever separate her from the love of God.

Oh, my. A tear just fell on me. The sponsor just remembered that this news is the best news anyone could ever send or receive.  If her big sister had not told her about Jesus, she wonders what her life might be like now.  She can’t imagine not having Jesus in her life, and she wants her Compassion daughter to know Jesus too.

She is signing her name now.  It reads, “Dearest Compassion Daughter, May you and your family know and love Jesus too!  John 3:16, Your Devoted Sponsor.”
She is putting me in the envelope now with some pictures of herself as a little girl—so I will have some travel companions!

We’ll spend a little time in the dark mailbox, then many hours in trucks, on planes and across the ocean.
First we will go to the translator.  Can you imagine being a translator of letters to Compassion children?  I don’t know who they are or what they believe.  But over and over again, they read about God, his love, his promises.  It must be a wonderful job!

I can’t wait until I get opened.  I’ll get to see the smile on my Compassion child’s face, and the excitement in her eyes when she gets a letter like the other children at her center.  When she sees the picture of her sponsor as a child, she will know that someone who lives far away, but who once was a lot like her, loves her and prays for her.

Then, she will run home and show me and the pictures to her mother and father and other family members.  Many times they read me too.  So I’ll get to tell even MORE people about how to know Jesus and be in His forever family! 
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Our Compassion child keeps all of us in a bundle under her bed—so I’ll get to see my letter family soon, and we’ll all be read and cherished by our child for a long, long, time!

How do you define “peace”?  What does it mean to you to be “at peace”? 

Some would say peace is “absence of conflict.”  A world and a life where everyone gets along, everyone treats others fairly and humanely, relationships that work effortlessly.

Some might define it as “inner calm.”  The ongoing spiritual exercise to rise above personal stress and struggles and maintain a positive outlook without anxiety, fear, and worry.

Others might define it as an acceptance of “things we cannot change” as the Overcomer’s Prayer puts it.

Certainly all of these reflect a facet of peace. But they fall short of describing True Peace—the Peace of God that passes all understanding.  Most of the time we speak of ‘absence of conflict,’ ‘inner calm,’ and ‘acceptance of things we cannot change’ in worldly, limited ideals. 

However, I can’t fathom a moment of earthly life completely void of conflict. It is only 10:00a.m. as I write.  I have already encountered a difference of opinion with my husband and some stressed friendships.